Just Three Little Words

It was just a short letter; a handwritten note. It wasn’t addressed to me but there it was, a folded piece of paper that I initially assumed was just another piece of trash.

It was moist from that morning‘s rain and as I started to ball it up to throw away three words caught my eye: “don’t do it”. The rest of the message was running off the page but as I tried to make out more words or a name all I could glean was a sense that the writer was making a last, perhaps futile, effort to stop a wedding.

Did the letter reach its intended audience? Did this person immediately disregard it or did it accomplish its mission? Or did the author give up before delivering the message? I will never know, but every once in a while I remember the note and can’t help but wonder.

Here is a true post-script to your fiction story (which I liked by the way). Driving by a wedding party entering the church, my friend Stacey leaned her body out the window and screamed “Don’t do it” to the surprise and glee of my girls. It was a panacea to the movies in which girls get sent the message that to get married is the happy end of story.